The present invention relates to and has among its objects the provision of novel processes for increasing growth rate, total biomass and amount of individual constituents in plants. Further objects of the invention will be evident from the following description wherein parts and percentages are by weight unless otherwise specified.
Increase in world population has greatly increased the demand for food, fiber and renewable energy sources, while at the same time limiting the amount of acreage available for crop production. It is increasingly becoming of concern whether agricultural crop productivity can keep pace with increasing population and at the same time provide renewable energy resources. Approaches for increasing food production and crop yield include breeding and selecting more productive plant varieties, improvement of farm management, and use of fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides. These methods have been useful in increasing production in technologically advanced countries but have had limited impact on developing nations where cultural practices and farm management are not advanced and where the cost of fertilizer prohibits the use. Additionally, even with these methods, productivity of the major -agricultural crops within the United States has somewhat leveled off in the past decade.
Past agricultural research has given little attention to the control of the biological processes that limit crop productivity and quality, thus much of the biological potential of plants has gone untapped. Although certain bioregulatory compounds and use thereof have been reported which increase particular plant constituents such as polyisoprene in guayule or Hevea rubber plants or carotenoid pigment in citrus, tomatoes and the like (U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,833,350; 4,159,903; 4,204,859; 3,864,501; 3,911,148 and 3,911,152), such increases are primarily at the expense of other plant constitutents and little or no increase in total plant biomass has resulted from these inventions.